Eternal Youth
by SilkenRoseDreams
Summary: Mori was the only one to ever see past the façade that Hani crafted and see the teenager beneath the child's body. If only the rest of the world could see it, too. Hani/Mori Shōnen-ai  Don't like, don't read. Do read, please R&R!


Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran High School Host Club. Pinky promise.

Sorry its short, but I was inspired, so here's my take on Hani/Mori. Warnings are to do with bubble-bursting and a bit of swearing. My idea for this came fro Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode 163, "Clock". It was about a girl with Turner's Syndrome. Look it up, and you'll see why it inspired me.

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><p>Mitsukuni Haninozuka looked so young. So terribly young. Everyone who met him and Takashi Morinozuka assumed that Mori was his big brother or babysitter. Even those who knew Hani thought of him as a child. He was short and sweet and appeared so pure and innocent that, even though Hani was 18, his classmates thought him a child. He was not. Hani was a teenage boy with teenage urges and a mind of his own. He didn't always listen to his parents or Mori, he watched some rather risqué things online, and he talked like a normal person when he and Mori were alone.<p>

Partly, this could be blamed on the Host Club. Because he had joined, Hani had to come up with a persona for himself at school, or anywhere else he might encounter customers. Since Mori was his bodyguard and went everywhere with him, Hani decided to include the stoic boy in his act. Hani would play up the cute while Mori was his silent protector and best friend. If anything good came out of the act, it was that. Mori wasn't always so friendly. He used to be quiet and cold towards his small blonde charge. "Bodyguards must always keep an emotional distance from their charge so that the charge doesn't risk themselves for the bodyguard." That was how it was explained to Hani when he was told he'd be getting a bodyguard. Hani hated it.

As a child, Hani looked fairly normal. He was always absurdly cute, but he was not shorter or younger looking than his classmates until they hit about 5th grade. Everyone else started maturing and growing taller while Hani stayed the same. After a few years, Hani was socially isolated. He looked so young that nobody would talk to him except in kendo, and that was only because his father ran the dojo so he was very good at it. It is a lonely life to not age like your peers, and didn't Hani know it. He couldn't even walk into a shop without being mauled by all the old ladies who claimed that he was "Such a cutie!" and tried to smother him with their breasts. There were no other kids around to tell them how old he really was, or to stick up for him, and Hani was disbelieved when he tried to tell them otherwise. He was never included in conversations, and he was excluded and ignored by younger kids too.

With Mori around, at least Hani wasn't alone. He could talk at Mori for hours without Mori saying anything besides an occasional grunt to show that he was listening. This was fun, and Hani frequently made a game out of trying to say the most outrageous thing he could to elict a response out of his quiet guardian. It rarely worked beyond an occasional twitch of his lips or a raised eyebrow. Still, this game briefly entertained the blonde, who was actually older than Takashi, and provided a brief respite from boredom. When Hani joined the Host Club, their relationship dynamics had to change. Hani was playing cute kid for a bunch of girls so that he got his extra-curricular credit, and Mori was the tagalong. They actually discovered that they liked the people they met while Hosting and their act became so well-practiced that it carried over into their private lives.

Mori started to talk to Hani, and Hani discovered how much Mori had remembered from Hani's rants. He remembered Hani's love of sweets and sugary things, his dislike of cake except with plenty of sweetened tea to wash it down with, his dislike of vegetables (Hani ranted about food a lot), and that Hani wished he looked older so that his body really matched his mind. "Being stuck in between is no fun. Only you talk to me, and that won't last forever. As soon as we go to University, we get split up unless we happen to take the same classes in the same school. Nobody really see the 18 year-old, just the 8 year-old body. I've had more old ladies hug me and more old men leer at me than most people would in three lifetimes. I want to grow up, Takashi."

No matter how much Hani complained, pestered, and monopolized Mori, Mori never left his side unless ordered. Hani knew it was because that was what he had been trained to do, but he didn't care as long as Mori stuck around and treated him like he wasn't a kid. Hani supposed that was why he had gotten a crush on Mori, was because Mori listened to Hani as himself, not a child. The first time he admitted it to his dark protector, Mori was shocked. He blushed like he did when all the girls asked him out, except he was twice as red. Hani didn't know what to say beyond "Takashi, I really like you", but it was apparently enough to set Mori on one of his longest quiet streaks yet. It was a week before the two talked again, and they didn't address the crush for a few months after that. Neither of them was ready for the kind of drama that happened when they stopped pussy-footing around and talked. Mori liked Hani, Hani liked Mori, and they got together. Publicly.

There was a sharp decline in Host Club customers for a while, many of the pair's customers becoming angry at Mori for going out with such a "young, innocent little boy." Half the school thought Mori was a pedophile. Mori took a verbal beating every day in class until Hani could take no more insults towards his own decision. He staged an assembly.

"You guys, I don't know if you have ever bothered asking, but do you know that I am older than Takashi by three months? I am also highest ranked in all of my classes, grade-wise. I am, for all the school records know, an intelligent person. I am old enough to do whatever I want in the world. I only look 8. And sure, those of you who were Host Club customers know that I often acted very cute and childish, but I'm sure you didn't realize that it was an act. I was putting up a façade that brought in customers. That was what my part in the club was. So if you looked at it objectively, you would see a normal guy who acted cute to bring in revenue for his club and was pretty smart. I happen to look like a small child, though, and to you, that was who I was. I had to be protected from big, bad Mori who wouldn't have so much as set me down unless I ordered him to, no matter how tired he was.

Well, here's a little news: Takashi is my protector. That is the way it is supposed to be, and you are upsetting the balance. I am up here to protect my boyfriend so that he can protect me from all of you. I don't see a reason for those who claim to want to protect me to prevent my protector from doing his job. Leave Takashi alone. I chose him because he knew who I was instead of who I pretended to be for you."

The whole auditorium was silent as the gathered crowd took in what this little boy said. He was just like them? It seemed impossible, but the proof was in front of them. They were judging this couple based only on one aspect of one of their personalities. Now, maybe they weren't all thinking this, since, as always, there were the homophobes, the jealous ones, and the stubborn; but at least the insults slowed to a smaller amount and the two boys were allowed to carry out their days with minimum hassle. Things were finally looking up again, until the first time they kissed in public.

They were just out on a date, holding hands and wandering around the city. They stopped to make out, like teenagers are wont to do, and out of nowhere, a big burly man yanked Mori up by the collar. "I'll see you arrested for molesting this little boy, see if I won't!" the man growled, sticking his face right up by Mori's. Hani was frantic, pulling out his wallet from his pocket and yelling at the man to stop, that Mori wasn't molesting him. He shoved his ID in the Man's face.

"Look, I'm 18, see for yourself! That's my school ID! I am not a little kid! Takashi is my boyfriend and he had every right to kiss me! Please put him down! Takashi won't run away, and you can even take us to the police station and have them call my parents. They'll tell you I'm 18 and that Takashi is younger than me by a few months, and you can apologize for assaulting my boyfriend." Hani wasn't sure what to do if the man didn't let Mori go, because it wasn't fair to hurt the guy for trying to protect a little kid. He couldn't have known. Hani was still pissed, though, that his normal date was being wrecked by some guy he didn't even know. Thankfully, the man really looks at the ID.

"Oh shit, you're those kids from my daughter's school who she complained about getting together a couple months ago. I'm really sorry, I thought this guy was molesting a little kid, and I have really young sons of my own. I couldn't let this guy go if he was a pedophile. I'm so sorry; I didn't know it was you. Please don't press charges, "the burly guy begged. He looked genuinely scared and didn't seem to be lying, so Mori picked a fuming Hani up and hoisted him onto his shoulders. They left the man without another word, and even through his anger, Hani knew that this eternal youth he possessed was a curse, not the blessing it is portrayed to be. He knew that as long as he had Takashi as the cool head to his fiery temper, they would make it through the tough times like that day. He knew just as surely that there would be many more of those days.


End file.
